As Donald Trump and Kris Kobach take the unprecedented step of demanding personal information of every voter in the country, the Democratic National Committee’s Commission on Protecting American Democracy from the Trump Administration will be holding this administration accountable for wasting taxpayer money on their efforts to restrict access to the ballot box instead of working to make it easier to vote. With the announcement that the Trump administration’s commission will hold its first hearing on July 19th, the DNC’s commission will hold a news conference the same day to explain why the hearing, and the commission as a whole, was set up from the start to mislead the public and steps that states will take to fight back.

Forty states across the country have already rejected the Trump administration’s intrusive requests, including Republican Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler who stated the commission “quickly politicized its work.” Republican Secretaries of State joined their Democratic colleagues in panning the attempted data grab by the federal government, with the vast majority of states saying they will not comply or at least not fully comply. And a member of the President’s commission has already quit.

“The President’s Commission was a fraud from the start, and after its first action it’s already being fiercely condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike,” said Jason Kander, chairman of the DNC commission. “President Trump clearly formed this commission to find a way to fake evidence to prove his lie about illegal voting in the 2016 election and invent an excuse to make it harder for eligible voters to vote in America in 2020. We’re not going to let him get away with that and will hold him and his sham commission accountable every step of the way.”

More details about the DNC’s Commission to Protect American Democracy from the Trump Administration’s July 19th press conference will be announced that week.

The DNC launched the Commission to Protect American Democracy from the Trump administration this May in order to combat the Trump administration’s voter fraud misinformation campaign by debunking the myth of widespread voter fraud, demonstrating the difficulty of voting in areas affected by voter suppression, and highlighting and promoting best practices that make voting easier.

The members of the DNC’s commission are:

Jason Kander (chairman), President, Let America Vote

Rep. Terri Sewell (vice chair), Alabama-07

Sen. Cory Booker, New Jersey

Rep. Joaquin Castro, Texas-20

State Rep. Crisanta Duran, Colorado House Speaker

Adrian Fontes, Maricopa County Recorder

Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky Secretary of State

Maura Healey, Massachusetts Attorney General

Rep. Grace Meng, DNC Vice Chair, New York-06

Rep. Gwen Moore, Wisconsin-04

Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State

State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, DNC Vice Chair, Louisiana

Karl Racine, District of Columbia Attorney General

Frank LeoneVA DNC Member

I am proud to represent Virginia as one of our five elected members of the Democratic National Committee. This site features my regular reports from the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Virginia , occasional news and comment regarding Virginia politics, and useful links and references. More about me, click here.